Poly Voyager 8200 UC review: ANC headphones uphold Plantronics heritage

The Poly Voyager 8200 UC are one of the flagship headphones from the famous audio brand formerly known as Plantronics. In fact, the change to the Poly branding is still so recent that the packaging and even the headset itself still sees the Plantronics brand name emblazoned across the headband. And many online stores still sell them under the name Plantronics Voyager 8200 UC.

But while the heritage is ancient (Plantronics were the first headsets on the moon, after all), these Voyager 8200 headphones are stacked with the latest tech to make them cleverer than just about any headphones I've used, a lot of which you won't find among many of even the best wireless headphones around.

I was sent a test unit to use for a few weeks, and it's been almost entirely positive, marred only by active noise-cancellation that feels like it could be quite a bit stronger, and a mild shock when I looked at the price tag.

Poly Voyager 8200 UC review: Key specifications

Poly Voyager 8200 UC review: Design and build

The Poly Voyager 8200 UC is marketed as a headset, so aimed at people who video-conference a lot, call-centre professionals, customer-facing agents and anyone else who speaks a lot to others via phone or the internet.

But it doesn't look like your typical headset. First off, there's no mic boom, as instead there are a total of six microphones built into the earpads, much like on more traditional headphones, and the earpad design is much more in line with music-focused headphones too, where the earcups go over the ears instead of directly onto them.

The padding on the earcups is soft and very comfortable, without feeling like it gets too hot too fast, and the headband looks stylish and has comfortable padded fabric on the underside to make sure there's no discomfort at the top of your head.

The sturdy build is a mix of plastic, metal and artificial leather, and it feels very tactile and solid to the touch. On the whole, the headset looks extremely refined and stylish without going near garish territory. At 289 grams, they're not super-light, but the weight is well-balanced, so there's little to no weight-related discomfort from wearing them for an extended period of time.

There are a few buttons on the earpads, two on the right cup and one on the left. These are the on/off/mode button and a red mute-mic button on the right and the ANC control button on the left. They're easy to get to grips with, easy to find with your hand when you wear them, and the gap between the two right-hand-side buttons is big enough to being able to easily distinguish which one you're pushing.

In addition to that, the panel on each earpad contains several buttons and dials, and you'd be forgiven for missing them at first, because I did.

On the left, there's a play/pause button in the centre of the pad, with skip buttons and an NFC button, which can pair the headset with NFC-enabled devices. And that's not all. The textured ring around the central panel is a volume dial, simply twist the ring and it will lower or raise the volume by a few points at a time, based on which direction you twist it. Then, on the other pad is a single-click pad to answer or end phone or internet calls via your connected devices.

It means Poly has managed to include a near-full control functionality on the headset itself while making it look very clean, uncluttered and stylish. Big tick there.

Another praiseworthy note is that the packaging it arrives in is fully recyclable cardboard, and it comes with a soft faux-leather carry pouch too, which we're assured is made in a nature-friendly way.

Poly Voyager 8200 UC review: Features and audio performance

On the inside, the Poly Voyager 8200 UC packs some interesting features too. With a 40mm speaker on board, the headset is geared toward maximum voice clarity, optimised for PC wideband voice telephony up to 7 kHz or for multimedia from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. Still, the audio driver on board also delivers impressive music audio, on par with many premium audio headphones.

Bass is rich with solid mids and highs too, while the included hearing protection tech, SoundGuard DIGITAL as Poly calls it, protects against sound levels above 118dBA, doesn't lead to any distortion or unwanted noise when turning the music up.

I tried the headphones with a variety of genres and artists, including rock from Queens Of The Stone Age, Soundgarden and Bring Me The Horizon, electronic music, including treble-high songs from The Chemical Brothers such as "Hey Boy Hey Girl" and deeper dub and drum'n'bass too, such as Leftfield's "Dub Gussett" and Photek's "Rings Around Saturn". Even '80s-infused synth pop like Dua Lipa's "Houdini" had a noticeable range to the sound. Loudness isn't spectacular, but again, this is a headset optimised for voice performance over studio-level music sound, and the hearing-protection software on-board probably has a slight dampening effect too (which is probably good for me).

There's a host of clever features in here too, apart from the snazzy buttons, voice-clarity tech and hearing protection. There's the aforementioned NFC-pairing functionality, Bluetooth 5.0 and the ability to simultaneously connect to at least two devices, with up to 8 stored connections on board.

If you need to grab a coffee while working, Poly has thankfully realised you might not live or work next to the office kitchen, as the headset can stay connected up to 30 metres away from your phone or computer. This is way more than the 10 metres quoted for most headphones. I never had any dropouts or lag when roaming around my house, with my laptop and phone sitting upstairs in a corner room while I prepared a coffee in the kitchen downstairs or let the cat out into the garden for the ninth time that day.

Voice clarity in video and phone calls, unsurprisingly, is excellent as well. I noticed a huge change in the clarity of everyone's speech on a multi-person Zoom call between these headphones and most others I've tried over the last year (with the possible exception of only the Technics EAH-AZ80 earbuds), and didn't receive a single complaint about my often-muttering voice not carrying over the other way.

One particularly excellent feature is that the headphones will automatically pause music if you remove them (and resume playing when you put them back on), and if you're not wearing them and an online or phone call comes in, simply putting them on answers the call automagically. This both means you won't waste as much battery life if you need to quickly remove them but forget to pause the music you're listening to, and don't need to fiddle with buttons or screens to answer calls. It's brilliant, and after weeks of use it still impressed me every time. I guess I'm a simple soul.

Battery life is more than decent too, with Poly quoting 24 hours of listening time, 20 hours of talking and up to 1 month of standby battery life. With ANC switched on, the listening time goes down a bit, but I got through about 2 and a half working days of fairly constant listening and occasional talking between charges on average, which equates to around 18-19 hours of battery life. It's not the best you'll find on the market, but certainly good enough not to be a distraction or hindrance.

The one slight downside to the headset's performance is the active noise cancellation. Fitted with a two-step ANC switch, I expected the first step to be 'normal ANC' where some but not much environmental sound bleeds through, while the second should be pretty much air-raid-siren-proof. This belief was reinforced when I glimpsed how much Poly is charging for the thing (see below, but sit down first). However, going from step one to step two, I noticed almost no change in the noise-cancellation level, with my typing still audible at the higher setting, as well as some environmental sounds that would be totally blocked out in any of the best ANC performers I've worn. If you're looking for world-beating ANC, you won't find it here, I'm afraid.

Poly Voyager 8200 UC review: Price

I couldn't find the 8200 UC listed on HP or Poly's US storefront, but in the UK, the Poly Voyager 8200 UC headset costs a staggering £382.99. That makes this, quite simply, the most expensive headset or headphones I've ever worn for more than two minutes.

Thankfully, the headset can be found cheaper elsewhere, so I recommend looking for deals in the £200s, at least, before shelling out the asking price on HP's online shop. Please note that many shops still stock them under the Plantronics brand name, so search for 'Plantronics Voyager 8200 UC' as well.

Should I buy the Poly Voyager 8200 UC?

Not for HP/Poly's asking price, is the short answer. Yes, the Poly Voyager 8200 UC are a good headset that works perfectly well as everyday headphones with largely great audio quality. They still wear the prestigious old Plantronics branding, and worthily so, I'd say. But with underperforming ANC and music audio quality that's almost but not quite as good as studio headphones, it makes little sense to pay nearly £400 for them. Thankfully, they are frequently available online, often under the Plantronics name, for prices from £225, which is much closer to where they belong, price-wise. The clever